How Social Media is Changing the 2012 Elections

There are plenty of ways you can use social media to follow the long march from the Iowa Caucus to the November Elections. Several sites, includingÂ Instagram andÂ Tumblr, are being used by candidates for the first time to engage and inform citizens.

From behind the scenes access from the media and each candidate’s content to larger sites tracking how the candidates are doing overall, here are just a few sites to check out.

2)Â Media Mentions |Â Washington Post: Media Mentions tracks how candidates are doing in news coverage as well as on Twitter. AndÂ The New York Times, with the help of Big Data, will tell you that candidates who do better than expected will get more media coverage as a result.

This is uninformed and it’s already being seen that theÂ correlation between quantity of Twitter followers, Facebook likes and YouTube views does not necessarily correlate to the number of votes. In fact, this gets back to the discussion of influence. If someone has all the social buzz, but not the votes….

4)Â See the Elections Unfold | Instagram: The “niche photo site” points out three major news organizations using the platform to augment their coverage. And it gives me a wicked idea (evil laugh).

5)Â Politics & Election News | New York Times: Book-ending our examples is the New York Times who is devoting significant resources above and beyond curating their own news to cover the election. In addition to aÂ mobile app, its bloggers andÂ interactive team are going deep to deliver some interesting insights and examples of social’s impact in the 2012 elections.

Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn

A scan on my part shows nothing of permanent of note from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn just yet. Twitter is showing folks how to live tweet for a better election experience, noting how Twitter and live TV go together like peas and carrots. But based on itsÂ White House Town Square effort, I’m sure they’re capable of a more substantive offering.

Facebook is beingÂ tapped for live chats as well. It’s good to see an engagement platform being used more for, uh, engaging with voters.

Instant Social Traction
It’s wild to see how quickly and thoroughly single moments in an election, or other nationally broadcast events, can unfold through social media. From Santorum’s unfortunate shared meaning of his last name (no link, just trust me) to hisÂ fashion choices.

Social spoofs will be an interesting sideline to distract from the carpet bombing of political ads we’ll see online and offline increasingly over the following year. In a year that election spending is touted asÂ helping to save big media, you know we’re in for some serious political noise this year.

But based on the above alone, I’ll note social is helping bring a new experience to the the 2012 elections — online, offline and on TV. It’s early and we’ll surely see more interesting examples of how it’s used to inform and engage voters.